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I read something recently about memory recall. They were working on how the brain actually recalls memories. The first time you recall a memory is pretty close to the original event, but perhaps some details are missing. When you wander back into consciousness, that altered version of the memory is stored in addition to the original in a sort of composite fashion. Do that often enough and you have a fuzzy recall of the original event. Obviously, some things don't change much, such as your name. You do recall that pretty well each time, hopefully. Something like your first kiss, however, gets altered each time you recall it.

i was talking about images we build in our minds (if visual memory, of course). if someone says to me "remember our christmas tree at grandma's?" i will picture it as i recall. but... if someone says "remember the christmas tree at grandma's with the old star on top?"

originally i did not remember a star on it, but now there is one... if you ask about that tree in a year or two's time, there probably is a star on top.

Two or more people seeing the same thing and walking away with different perceptions isn't solely a memory recall problem. Our sensory organs are physically different as is our brain's processing ability. Add to that the fuzzy memory inherent to us all and it's amazing any two people can agree on anything. I think that's one reason there are twelve people on a trial jury. It assures that at least the major facts are agreed upon.

yes, i guess the male/female blue/green colour shift is a good example.

i did one of those colour perception tests to see i well i see colour nowadays, as my vision is slowly to pot. (can read the paper sans glasses on a bright sunny day, but see squat on a cloudy one). so i did very, very well.

great. but ask me to match some paint to my curtains - and i'll be sure to flunk! spectacularly. even while remembering to compensate for the evil fluorescents..

I don't know what all dementia entails. I do know that the differences in perception occur over all age groups. Back in the days when I worked for the cell phone company there was a team which did psycho acoustic testing. A group of people listened to normal phone conversation and were asked to rate the quality of what they heard. The same audio was played to everyone, but it sounded better or worse depending on color of lighting, temperature in the room, echoes, and a whole bunch of other environmental factors I can't think of right now. Psychology has a lot to do with how we perceive things, apparently.

That acoustic lab was my favorite. Phones that sounded great outside sounded like crap inside. I have no idea what they did to compensate, but I'd guess it was a lot like what they do to hearing aides these days. You can get ones that will automatically adjust to your surroundings. I still haven't found anyone who is totally satisfied with their hearing aides though. LOL